Methods and apparatus for wet-treating textile materials in an endless form are known, an example thereof being in German Pat. No. 24 27415 which shows an apparatus in which a drum is concentrically disposed within a kettle or boiler, the drum being made with permeable walls to permit passage therethrough of the treatment liquor. As a rule, at least the drum consists of upper and lower halves which are axially offset, thereby leaving a gap at one end through which the textile material can be introduced into the inside of the drum by means of a flushing-in arrangement which would normally be a conduit with a nozzle though which the textile can be introduced into the drum, conveyed by liquid. The wet treatment is accomplished during the flushing in, after which the textile material is plaited down in the inside of the drum, fitting against the inside of the wall, and is conducted further in this plaited-down form because of the rotation of the drum until it finally reaches a receiving area below a winch. The winch picks up the plaited-down textile material from the inside of the drum and guides it again along a path to the flushing-in conduit. The treatment liquor fed in by way of the flushing-in arrangement passes through perforations and the gap of the drum, is collected at the bottom area of the boiler, and is fed by means of a return arrangement again to the flushing-in arrangement.
The wet treatment of the textile material is accomplished by means of this known apparatus, and of the related process, exclusively while being guided through the flushing-in arrangement in which the textile material comes into intimate contact with the treatment liquor. As will be recognized, we are dealing here with a relatively short treatment stretch and in addition a system in which the material is exposed to a significant amount of tension as a result of its own weight during the phase of being picked up again by means of the winch.